Beatnik Turtle's Song of the Day

Ants

February 07, 2007 06:00 - 1.3 MB

To this day, when Ted says "Hi, my name is Ted," he has to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying, "...and this is my song about ants."

Our friend Holmes! came into the studio with this gem. He laid down the initial scratch guitar, sang, and left. Tom took up the challenge of overseeing the development of it and within a few weeks, built up the guitar parts, got John to play drums, and Tom to add bass.

(I Can't Really Say Why) I Like To See You Cry

February 05, 2007 06:00 - 1.79 MB

The title and melody line of this song came from Jason's archives. Back in the 90s, while counting off to record an entirely different song, he made up and sang this line. Years later Randy and Jason heard it, thought it was a good start, and developed it into this more complete song.

Father Pedophile

February 04, 2007 06:00 - 1.83 MB

Making the altar boy an altar man. All allegations in this song are vehemently denied.

It's Nice To Be Needed

February 03, 2007 06:00 - 1.25 MB

It's nice to be needed some time. But not ALL of the time.

Smarter n Better n You

February 02, 2007 06:00 - 2.28 MB

It's a sad fact that people are smarter n better n you. Well, except those who don't understand satire. Yee-haw!

Her Imaginary Closet (Demo)

February 01, 2007 06:00 - 2.92 MB

This song is a Beatnik Turtle live favorite. While it's a decent studio song, it's a twisting song that just has the best energy live. You can hear what it sounds like from the stage on the Beatnik Turtle live CD, which will be released in 2007. Her Imaginary Closet is inspired by an article about women's shopping habits. According to the article, women try on an astounding number of clothes without buying them. Men, on the other hand, often buy more than they try on.

The Housing Bubble

January 31, 2007 06:00 - 1.44 MB

Randy Chertkow wrote this one in late 2005 as Alan Greenspan was kicking off the housing boom by lowering interest rates repeatedly. Randy was positive that such a boom would one day end and, having spent years always wanting to write a song about financial trends and Greenspan in particular, finally had his chance. Randy's now working on a song about Bernanke.

What A Horrible Thing To Say

January 30, 2007 06:00 - 2.17 MB

Dugan O'Keene came in with this fun one based on some lyrics Matt had. Sometimes it's a challenge to write a melody to a structured set of lyrics, but not for Dugan. "What A Horrible Thing To Say" also has the distinction of being the first song of the day to be tagged for having "explicit lyrics" thanks to one sh*tty little word.

No Night Stand (I'm Not Your Type I'm Not Inflatable)

January 29, 2007 06:00 - 2.87 MB

The concept for this song came when Matt Scholtka came up with the lyric "I'm not your type I'm not inflatable." He also had the "no night stand" idea as well. From there, Jason and Carrie Bruno (who's singing) blew it up into this would-be dance club hit.

Clockworks

January 28, 2007 06:00 - 5.52 MB

This instrumental has flavors of Cabaret Voltaire.

The Day I Burned The House Down

January 27, 2007 06:00 - 1.28 MB

Sometimes, sh*t happens. You know, snakes on a plane. And other times, your troubles are self-inflicted.

Man With The Mandolin

January 26, 2007 06:00 - 1.65 MB

Ted Blegen showed up at the studio one session with a shiny new mandolin and only three chords. Of course, we had to write a song about it.

Splittin' The Reed

January 25, 2007 06:00 - 1.61 MB

There was no keyboard available when this song was recorded, so all of the synth parts on this song were painstakingly hand-crafted and entered in by hand. The consensus was: playing keyboard parts using a keyboard is easier and more efficient.

New Drummer

January 24, 2007 06:00 - 833 KB

Our friend was horrified when he found out that we took his joke voice mail from years ago and turned it into a song.

In The Office Where Nobody Goes

January 23, 2007 06:00 - 2.82 MB

At Jason's workplace, there was an office that no one ever went into. His first thought was, "I wonder what the hell goes on in there." His next thought was, "Hey - that's a song!" To this day no one, but no one, knows what goes on in that office.

Going Commando

January 22, 2007 06:00 - 2.34 MB

To his shame, about a month before this song was written in early 2006, Randy had no idea what the term Going Commando meant. The only way for him to repay his karmic debt was to write a song about it. Tom's inspired fingerpicking weaved it into a delicate threnody about freedom from wearing underwear.

Travelling

January 21, 2007 06:00 - 2.83 MB

This is an instrumental written quite some time ago, created by Jason.

Captain Hero - Saturday Morning TV Version

January 20, 2007 06:00 - 495 KB

This song was written for a sketch comedy show at Second City called "Sci-Fry" directed by Matt Scholtka. It was performed during a sketch called "Dr. Insidious Torture." In the sketch, Dr. Insidious Torture had captured our hero, the aptly-named, Captain Hero. Given the premise, we wrote an over-the-top theme for him drawing on our memories of sugar cereals and early Saturday mornings in front of the TV.

Everyone's A Winner

January 19, 2007 06:00 - 2.17 MB

This song was specifically written as a tribute to BoardGameGeek's board gaming podcast, "GeekSpeak," when it was decided that the show was ending. The show aired for a year and a half and was hosted by Scott Alden (Aldie) and Derk Solko (Derk) of www.boardgamegeek.com. It was not only the first gaming podcast, it was also among the first podcasts ever, and had thousands of avid listeners. Beatnik Turtle's involvement with the show came after the first few episodes when the band, which was a...

Face Down In The Snow

January 18, 2007 06:00 - 3.62 MB

Ironically, "Face Down In The Snow" was written on an extremely snowy weekend. Wait, that would be unironically, wouldn't it? Oh well, the point is it was quite a blizzard, with traffic accidents, and power outages all over the area. We had luckily made it up to the cabin in Wisconsin for a big recording weekend before it hit. But shortly after arriving and settling in, we suddenly realized that Steve Owens, our keyboard player and John Owens' brother, was nowhere to be found. He was there....

Play On Casiotone

January 17, 2007 06:00 - 1.66 MB

Years ago, Jason got trapped in his room many, many years ago during some big party his mom threw. Luckily, he was trapped with his Casiotone and a four-track. Having nothing better to do, he wrote this song. The old lady crowd noises at the beginning and end of the song are all real and were recording at the time thanks to Jason's spy training and his cunning ability to slip the microphone out the door unnoticed. Contrary to public opinion, no old ladies were harmed in the making of this s...

It's Almost Nearly Done

January 16, 2007 06:00 - 1020 KB

In 2006, Beatnik Turtle was not only working on The Song Of The Day, Randy and Jason were also working on the Indie Band Survival Guide., which got some tremendous press from Billboard Magazine, Reuters, the Associated Press, and the blogosphere. During the time of writing it, all Tom Roper heard, week after week, was "it's almost nearly done!" since Randy and Jason kept writing, editing, researching, re-writing, re-editing and re-researching it. All this instead of recording music which was...

That's Chappy (When He's Got The Flu)

January 15, 2007 06:00 - 2.4 MB

About two years ago, Beatnik Turtle got an email from a band out of the UK that wanted the chords to a song we wrote called "I Think You Think I Think You Don't Like Me." They wanted to add the song to their setlist. We gave them the chords, but in return, we asked for a song that they wrote. After all, it's only fair that if they were covering one of of ours, we should do something with one of theirs. What we got back was what became the first verse of this song. It was about one of the ba...

Trapazoid Tripp

January 14, 2007 06:00 - 2.51 MB

Written as a theme song to a road trip. A road trip that when all was said or done, was shaped like a trapezoid.

Me And The Midget

January 13, 2007 06:00 - 1.67 MB

This song came about when Jason and a friend misheard the lyrics in Belle and Sebastian's song "Me and The Major." ("Me and the Major don't see eye to eye") and thought the misheard lyric would make a great lyric.

You Will Succeed!

January 12, 2007 06:00 - 1.27 MB

This song was inspired by two fortune cookies. One said, "You have an active mind and a keen imagination." Another said, "All your plans will succeed."

This Song's Not Sold In Stores

January 11, 2007 06:00 - 2.14 MB

This song was inspired by an idea from Dana while working on the website and Tom realized into a song within a week. We then used the golden throat of the Beatnik Turtle's bass trombone player as our announcer since he does professional voice-over work. (He cut us a break on his rates!)* *Well, actually he didn't.

Were All These Beer Cans Here Last Night?

January 10, 2007 06:00 - 3.36 MB

This is the demo of the version on Beatnik Turtle's The Cheapass Album. The song was written shortly after playing the classic board game by Cheapass Games, Deadwood. Jason and John related to a particular card from the game's "Another Day, Another Dollar" Horror Expansion pack that contained the song's title and inspired the song. They have both since had interventions and are on numerous 12-step programs. Check out the bigger, better, and brassy-er version available on: The Cheapass Album....

Traffic Cones

January 09, 2007 06:00 - 2.08 MB

Let's face it, there needs to be a song about Traffic Cones. This is that song. Find out more about them at The Traffic Cone Preservation Society. Though our song says traffic cones don't make good pets, this site disagrees.

How Did I Google This?

January 08, 2007 06:00 - 3.21 MB

Who hasn't asked themselves this question? Check out the music video for this song on TheSongOfTheDay.com.

Go To Bed

January 07, 2007 06:00 - 1.46 MB

This one's slated for the inevitable Beatnik Turtle kids album. This song has appeared in Beatnik Turtle's live set list once or twice.

Stop! I Know Whatcha Gonna Say

January 06, 2007 06:00 - 1.07 MB

We came up with this song on the spur of the moment. Our drummer John Owens showed up with a pair of drumsticks but no drums so we grabbed some pots and pans from the kitchen, a big cardboard box, a plastic container, and some other household objects. John played this makeshift drum kit and even added some harmonies to boot.

Big Bad Battle Of Jericho

January 05, 2007 06:00 - 1.85 MB

Don't strain yourself trying to figure out the lyrics to this one. We just thought that the bass line had a great groove.

Under The Radar

January 04, 2007 06:00 - 3.84 MB

The views expressed in this song solely represent Beatnik Turtle, the band, and do not reflect the views of any individual member. The band members would like each of their respective employers to know that they are extremely hard workers who are completely committed to their jobs. Beatnik Turtle, the band, on the other hand, goofs off at work all of the time. Also, hear an alternate version posted on March 29th

I Didn't Know She Was Into That

January 03, 2007 06:00 - 2.26 MB

Jason writes a lot of songs. This one is from his back catalog. Many of the tracks on this one date back to 1999, but thanks to technology we were able to add drums, re-do vocals, and replace some hummed melody lines intended for saxophones with real saxophones.

Welcome To The Worldwide Virtual Stage

January 02, 2007 06:00 - 2.87 MB

This song captures the essence of what we're doing with The Song Of The Day project and the way that the digital world has created opportunities for musicians. In a lot of ways, it's really the theme song to our Indie Band Survival Guide.

The Song Of The Day Dot Com

January 01, 2007 06:00 - 2.47 MB

Welcome to TheSongOfTheDay.com, where there's a new song every single day of the year. One band, one year, 365 free songs!

Beatnik Turtle's Song of the Day

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